Gone are the days when Budget was considered vision of the governance and also reflected the approach and roadmap for the people by the government for the next five years. But in the past decades, it has been used as a tool to whom to appease or hurt, keeping a close eye on political dividend it will have at the centre as well as in states. UPA or the NDA in the past followed this political arithmetic. Generally, the budget for minorities is not to make them too happy or too sad. The degree may vary from one set of government to another but the basic mindset remains the same.
The party that promised the moon for all in their slogan of Achche din Aaane wale hain started on a wrong note and almost failed to live up to what they said or promised in their manifesto. The rail fare hike will hit the pockets of one and all. The plan outlay of the Ministry of Minority Affairs in the Union Budget is 5.75 per cent higher than Rs 3,530.98 crore announced by the UPA in the previous budget. The BJP which might claim some credit to its kitty for the percentage increase in the outlay for minorities but if we compare with the size of minority population and their overall status in all walks of life then surely the amount is insignificant and certainly not in proportion to what they deserve and require to be at par with other groups and communities. Even 100 per cent increase at this juncture may prove to be less given the plight of the Muslims as compared to others.
BJP in its manifesto during 2014 Lok Sabha polls had promised a secure environment for the Muslim community, equal opportunities in education, national madrasa modernisation programme, education and jobs without discrimination, modernisation of minority educational systems and institutions, establishment of permanent inter-faith consultative forum, to empower with livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunities, enhancement of traditional artisanship and entrepreneurial skill, maintenance and restoration of heritage sites; digitisation of archives, preservation and promotion of Urdu. Also the BJP manifesto claims that it is unfortunate that after six decades of Independence, a bulk of minority, particularly Muslims are in abject state of poverty and modern India must be a nation of equal opportunity. The party is committed to make all communities equal partners in the growth and progress of the country which cannot be achieved if a community is left behind.
The BJP-led NDA government in its budget has allocated Rs 100 crore for modernisation of madrassas and also announced the decision to launch a special programme for the upgradation of skills of minorities in traditional arts and crafts. Does the budget allocation for minorities in any way match those fine words of care for minorities in the BJP’s manifesto? The government has remained conspicuously silent on the welfare schemes announced by the earlier government; neither has it assured any new measures and policies that could transform their lives and well-being at the ground level. The UPA government did announce a plenty of welfare schemes but failed to implement them in the desired manner.
Vice President Hamid Ansari has recently said that the Muslim of India has lagged and is educationally backward and because of it fails to avail all the benefits that are available to his fellow citizens. He also emphasised that the community literacy rate of 59.1 per cent is lower as compared to the national average of 64.8 per cent and because of lower level of educational qualifications Muslims constitute only 31.1 per cent of the organised labour force. In 2006-07 the budgetary allocation for Minority was 144 crore, which was increased to 365 in 2007-08, it was further increased to 664 crore during 2008-09, and then to 1723 crore in 2009-10, to 2020 crore in 2010-11, to 2297crore in 2011-12, to 2218 crore in 2012-13, to 3531 crore in 2013-14.
But the point to note here is that steep hike in percentage over the years gets hardly translated into action on the ground. The volume of increase has not transformed and reduced the plight of Muslims but rather it has deteriorated in the subsequent years. If we consider the Sachar Committee report as the benchmark then the nature of allocation and its implementation is far less significant to exert positive change on the ground in form and substance. The policy of tokenism has been prevalent since Independence and the plight of Muslims bears testimony to that fact.
In a recent report released by Minority Rights Group (MRG) International reveals the anti-Muslim plank of the BJP. The government has to rise above its ideological prejudices against minorities in order to be a responsible government. “India has progressive and significant legislation and policies that protect the rights of its minorities, including national- and state-level minority commissions, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Act, and reservations for minorities in education and politics. India’s neighbours have not quite managed to secure such broad rights protection at the national level. Still, India has problems implementing its own legislation. The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Acts have provisions for special courts…but few states have established such courts…India has provisions in the penal code which can be used to prosecute hate speech crimes. But widespread entrenched discrimination against minorities and gender discrimination result in the lack of will on behalf of authorities to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and hate speech against minorities,” said Nicole Girard, Asia programme coordinator, MRG and co-author of the South Asia chapter of the report in a report on 3 July.
No doubt, the budget is not the end in itself because still the government has got five crucial years to live up to its slogan sab ka haath sab ka vikas and review its anti-minority plank. Then only the government can claim high moral ground on development and governance, if it really wants to make a difference to one and all.